My map is for the greater part a compilation of work from various other Mystaran cartographers, most namely Thorf, Sturm, Zendrolion, Robin, Oldawg and Birchbeer, to whom I offer my thanks (and apologies to anyone I've accidentally missed out!).

I have also based this map on Bruce Heard's work on Mystaran climates, as well as the Companion Set map of Brun (as opposed to the Hollow World version). This means I haven't accounted for any curvature, (just like the canon hex maps generally do not).

I noted that there were a number of themes running through most fanon works about Borea, such as the existence of a huge valley as well as a large wasteland (the Borean wastes) to the east. Both of these geographical features may be a direct consequence of the great upheaval at the time of the Rain of Fire, many millennia ago. It should also be noted that the area called the 'Borean wastes' is not a desert as such, but is instead an area where there happens to be little top soil and much exposed bedrock (and is therefore as cold as the surrounding areas). Humanoids have also featured prominently in most fanon works about Borea, and so are likely to be much more numerous in the Borean valley than humans.

In my map, the arctic circle would be situated where the Norzee meets Northern Norwold, which is slightly further north than some of the other fanon placements (canon material is slightly contradictory as to where the arctic circle is actually situated, so I have gone with Thorf's placement which he has used in his 'lining up the maps' project). Thorf has also very kindly checked the placement of the Norzee coastline as well as that of the Greater Borean River for me to ensure that they tie up with the placements shown in the Companion set map (lining the maps up by hand can be unreliable at the best of times, so I needed some help with this!).

In my campaign, the Borean Valley itself is a dangerous area, not only due to the Kingdom of the Dead (which contains some areas of radioactivity as well as numerous undead ruled by the Lich Lord), but also because of the magical influences in this area. When Blackmoor's civilisation was destroyed many millennia ago, large amounts of energy based on that civilisation's technomancy was released, causing havoc in this region. This has led to the wildlife becoming mutated and more dangerous than that for most of the other parts of Brun (giant and even gargantuan insects, spiders etc are relatively common in the Borean Valley, as well as predatory plant life, such as vampire roses, archer bushes, grab grass etc). There are also the occasional magical storms which create strange effects, such as turning the rain into unusual colours (and possibly causing magical damage as well). Fortunately, these effects are usually limited to the Borean valley itself, and do not affect the neighbouring areas.

I have only included a few suggested nations to the map, to ensure that there are numerous other areas where additional nations can be added, if desired. A quick summary of the nations shown is as follows:

The Kingdom of the Northern Gnomes: These gnomes are briefly mentioned in the Book of Wonderous Inventions, and live in arctic lands where they invent items to help them travel on the nearby water and ice. The placement for them was never mentioned in canon sources, so I have gone with Robin's location, where the terrain is ideal for these little fellows (there are mountains where they can mine and live underground, as well as various nearby lakes and moors where they can test out their inventions).

The Kingdom of the Lowland Roags is comprehensively described in Fan Gazetter 5 by Oldawg, and is mainly populated by humans and Hill Giants (as are most of the surrounding grasslands).

The Kingdom of Sidsteland has been described in previous fanon works as being inhabited by descendants of the Anatalians, but in other works, this area has been described as being populated by those distantly related to the Quariks (see the Creature Catalogue for a description of this race). I'm inclined to go with the latter, although having this nation populated by both types is also entirely plausible. Those distantly related to the Quariks have some natural immunity to cold, which explains how they can live in a tundra region. Their slightly bestial look can also be explained by them being partly and very distantly related to the Beastmen who now inhabit the arctic regions of the Hollow World. The inhabitants of Sidsteland revere fire and some of the names of their settlements reflect this. The actual lost city of the Quariks would most likely be placed a fair way to the North West of this Kingdom.

The Grand Duchy of Radescu is inhabited by vampire nobility, as well as their human serfs/subjects. One could easily use Omnibus' 'Grand Duchy of Noapte' as a substitute for this dominion, but unfortunately I can't read Italian so I couldn't adapt it directly (although it appears to have a similar theme). In any event, this area would be an excellent place to run Ravenloft style adventures, as not only are there vampire lords ruling the Duchy, but they are also having to deal with the machinations of the Lich Lord in the neighbouring Kingdom of the Dead. The vampires of this duchy wish to maintain their independence, but the Lich Lord has other plans...

Shadowfell is a nation populated by shadow druids, who view most other human settlements as a blight on the land. As a consequence, they are very dangerous to deal with under most circumstances. The descendents of these druids were banished from the Druidic Union in the great Midland forest centuries ago, and eventually settled in their current location after a great migration northwards.

I've also included numerous human and humanoid tribes listed by Omnibus and/or Sturm in their maps.

Finally, it should be observed that the above notes and maps are my interpretation of this region only, and very little of it is based on canon (this is because there is almost no canon material for this region). Therefore, most of the above can be changed without causing contradictions to official source material.

Please feel free to point out any errors/omissions that you see! I'd also be interested in hearing other people's views regarding what might be in this region.

Very interesting, I think Borea is so big and under-developed there is a lot of space to put more cultures in it, so any more fan work is much welcomed.
Basically in Threshold issue #17 http://pandius.com/thrs_mag.html#17 I summarized in my History of Brun the italian content of Omnibus's Gaz, but I think you already saw it.
I'm still uncertain about the extent of the Kingdom of the Dead, meaning if I want to have it so big in the middle of the continent. IIRC the idea was introduced by JTR but I do not know who made the first map actually showing it.
In mine, I would be inclined to downplay it a bit or maybe leave its full development for future history. Also I need to decide if I want it to be dominated by Nyx, Hel or Thanatos
And I'd also like to use the Othwa goblins by Bruce Heard (http://pandius.com/urzud.html) which could become a real threat in the region. What if they have to face the Kingdom of the Dead first?
My idea on Borea also includes the hidden power of the gnomes, as described in Threshold issue #17 at the end of my article, but mostly here I just wanted to hear your thoughts about the Othwa and the Kingdom of the Dead and what relations you imagine with Shadowfell and Radescu.

I catch the opportunity to ask you here a thing I forgot to say you in pm: would it be possible to modify the taiga hex symbol and colors? The grey background is the same shade of grey used for the "dead soil" hexes, but taiga is far from dead. In general, I don't feel the need to distinguish a "taiga" hex from a "evergreen forest" hex (which already exists), since all subarctic evergreen forests could be considered part of a taiga biome. However, if one wanted to distinguish between them, what about using a light grey (like tundra hexes) or light yellow (like grassland/steppe hex) background, keeping instead the traditional evergreen symbols? After all a taiga can be light or heavy as well.

Carillion wrote:The Kingdom of the Northern Gnomes: These gnomes are briefly mentioned in the Book of Wonderous Inventions, and live in arctic lands where they invent items to help them travel on the nearby water and ice. The placement for them was never mentioned in canon sources, so I have gone with Robin's location, where the terrain is ideal for these little fellows (there are mountains where they can mine and live underground, as well as various nearby lakes and moors where they can test out their inventions).

I think the Northern Gnomes' original placement comes from LoZompatore's article on central Brun. I envision this realm to be more like a loose and decentralized federation of clans than a proper kingdom.

Carillion wrote:The Kingdom of the Lowland Roags is comprehensively described in Fan Gazetter 5 by Oldawg, and is mainly populated by humans and Hill Giants (as are most of the surrounding grasslands).

Maybe it's only me, but I continue to have a problem with the fact that this excellent OldDawg setting (I mean, the one from GAZFs 4 and 5) is tied with a past Thyatian dominion in this area, which in my opinion is quite out of place. Also, I can't understand the presence of an Essurian colony (Ghyr) beyond the Denagothian Wastes (that's why I placed Ghyr on the north-eastern corner of the Denagothian Plateau, but that's another story). In my version, I'd rather connect the GAZF4-5 settiing with some other realm - like Mishler's Galannor - but until it's clear where it'd be better to place those realms, that is when Thorf will have completed his work at 72mph on Brun, it'd be hard to come to a definite picture.

Carillion wrote:The Kingdom of Sidsteland has been described in previous fanon works as being inhabited by descendants of the Anatalians, but in other works, this area has been described as being populated by those distantly related to the Quariks (see the Creature Catalogue for a description of this race). I'm inclined to go with the latter, although having this nation populated by both types is also entirely plausible. Those distantly related to the Quariks have some natural immunity to cold, which explains how they can live in a tundra region. Their slightly bestial look can also be explained by them being partly and very distantly related to the Beastmen who now inhabit the arctic regions of the Hollow World. The inhabitants of Sidsteland revere fire and some of the names of their settlements reflect this. The actual lost city of the Quariks would most likely be placed a fair way to the North West of this Kingdom.

Agreed. As for Sidsteland, I'd rule out both Antalians and Thyatians (apparently they come here carrying a plague at some point in Omnibius' timeline). Some days ago, I wrote down some loose notes about this in a pm to Carillion, which I'd like to share below with the community:

In Omnibius' gaz, the people of Sidsteland is made up of Iulutians and a number of Antalian immigrants. I suppose, in our revision of this realm, we could substitute the Antalian component of the Sidstelandians with another lineage - maybe something connected with frost giants which would help explain these peoples' resistance to cold climate. We ruled drakkars and ships out of the picture, but maybe we could find something else to substitute for them - something not made of wood, but which would allow these peoples to navigate the Greater Borean River and (in summer) the northern Norzee. Maybe - now that your map gives a more complete picture of the region - even crude ships/drakkars could be possible, if the Sidstelandians go up the Borean River to reach woods and forests (which are not all that faraway from their realm).

All in all, keeping their Iulutian heritage, we could recast the realm as a kingdom of part semi-nomadic, part sedentary Iulutian peoples, with a good share of [insert name here... frost giant?] blood in their veins, who have adapted to the life in the tundra, raiding and trading along the Borean River (and more rarely in Norzee) from their small villages in the far north. Also, in order to avoid multiplicating names for fan creations, and to present the realm as an adjustment of Omnibius' Sidsteland, I suggest to keep the realm's original name and eventually reshaping a little the kingdom's borders up to the northern coast.

The relevant point to me is to avoid making this realm the umpteenth M-Northman nation (like in Omnibius' original version), moreover because it happens to be located into the tundra climate area. So, keeping Sidsteland IMO requires some rewriting and tweaking of Omnibius' material.

Carillion wrote:The Grand Duchy of Radescu is inhabited by vampire nobility, as well as their human serfs/subjects. One could easily use Omnibus' 'Grand Duchy of Noapte' as a substitute for this dominion, but unfortunately I can't read Italian so I couldn't adapt it directly (although it appears to have a similar theme).

Well, there's not really that much besides some fleshed-out NPCs. The basic idea is a population of lycanthropy-infected humans ruled by tyrannical vampires. The humans, Traladarans coming from the Kavkaz region (sic, maybe they should be interpreted as migrants from the City-States area or not being Traladarans altogether) were already there before the vampires came. The humans lived in a town (Noapte) built over ancient ruins half-submerged in a nearby lake. The vampires were a noble clan of Boldavia exhiled by Morphail during one of his purges of rival families; they came here via Gulluvia (Adri Varma), established their dominion over the humans and found interesting magical gemstones among the ruins. Then they expanded the town and fortified it, traded with the Western Alliance, kept in line the population but still have problems with a resistance movement led against them by some lycanthropes inside the duchy and supported by tribes of wild lycanthropes outside it.

In your version, Carillion, it seems however a very populous place: one city, two towns... isn't it too much for a such a place? Omnibius' version had a total of 15,000 inhabitants (99% lycanthropes, 1% vampires), which seems more than enough to me. Moreover, if you want to keep the history of the vampires' Boldavian origin, you'll have to explain why they chose to settle that far in the north an not in a more convenient, nearby place - after all there's plenty of land between Gulluvia and this place. As an alternative, I think Noapte (or Radescu) could be placed on the southern verge of the Kingdom of the Dead, but I'll have a clearer idea about this only after Thorf's map of Brun will come out (if ever, since the mapping of the world at 72mph which he started with seems to have been overridden by a reprojection of the whole globe, with unforeseeable consequences... ).

Carillion wrote:In any event, this area would be an excellent place to run Ravenloft style adventures, as not only are there vampire lords ruling the Duchy, but they are also having to deal with the machinations of the Lich Lord in the neighbouring Kingdom of the Dead. The vampires of this duchy wish to maintain their independence, but the Lich Lord has other plans...

Of course, even if there was already a more accessible Boldavia for that, complete with the nearby rival-lich in the person of Brannart McGregor...

Sturm wrote:I'm still uncertain about the extent of the Kingdom of the Dead, meaning if I want to have it so big in the middle of the continent. IIRC the idea was introduced by JTR but I do not know who made the first map actually showing it.
In mine, I would be inclined to downplay it a bit or maybe leave its full development for future history. Also I need to decide if I want it to be dominated by Nyx, Hel or Thanatos

As far as I know, the extent of the original Kingdom of the Dead in OldDawg's version comes from OldDawg's own map, which constitutes a sort of anticipation of what could have been the direction taken by his future works. Personally, I agree with Sturm about the need to reduce the size of this Kingdom of the Dead in regard to the original version; I'm also not particularly persuaded by the post-apocalyctic character of the area - I find it interesting to have a few remnants of Blackmoor here and there, but I'd avoid exposed full-fledged ruins of skyscrapers and such things.

"The prince should study historical accounts of the actions of great men, to see how they conducted themselves in war; he should study the
causes of their victories and defeats, so as to avoid the defeats and imitate the victories" N. Machiavelli, The Prince, XIV, 5

My main concern is that the dead lands surrounds Urzud, when this area should in my view be populated by humanoids instead of undead. I'm also happy using the Othwa goblins, and in fact I placed them in my other Borean map which can be found here (although this map does now need some tweaks and updating):

As you can see from the map, I removed the deadlands from around Urzud itself, but now I'm thinking we should perhaps push it back further still. I see the humanoids territory here being their own, and not them constantly having to fight undead in order to maintain it.

One other problem we will have is that James Mishler's Galannor is confirmed to be situated where Urzud once was (if my memory is correct). This doesn't tie up with Bruce's article on the Othwa goblins, who repopulate the area around Urzud instead. I think the positioning we currently have for Galannor works, but from what I recall from a recent pm with Zendrolion, it may not be the actual positioning that James Mishler was intending.

My idea on Borea also includes the hidden power of the gnomes, as described in Threshold issue #17 at the end of my article, but mostly here I just wanted to hear your thoughts about the Othwa and the Kingdom of the Dead and what relations you imagine with Shadowfell and Radescu.

Hopefully I've now covered some of this above. As for Shadowfell, I would have them mainly keeping to themselves and not entering the Borean valley at all. These druids would normally only be a danger in their own forest, where they would likely attack with little provocation. As for Radescu, it appears that I might not be able to adapt Omnibus's works about Noapte, going by Zendrolion's comments below, so we may need to keep them separate. It looks like I might have to write something myself for this nation at some point, which I'm happy to do! This nation would be at odds with the Kingdom of the dead, with the vampires there wishing to remain free from the Kingdom of the Dead. Your map showed some settlements here, as did Robin's, so I think the general consensus is that there is some sort of nation here, but for now, this is very much work in progress. In the meantime, you could maybe post something about the Living Alliance, as that's in this area as well! Am I right in thinking that the Living Alliance is one of your ideas for this region?

I must confess that I had accidentally overlooked your material about the power of the gnomes in this area, so I will definitely go back and have a look at that!

I catch the opportunity to ask you here a thing I forgot to say you in pm: would it be possible to modify the taiga hex symbol and colors? The grey background is the same shade of grey used for the "dead soil" hexes, but taiga is far from dead. In general, I don't feel the need to distinguish a "taiga" hex from a "evergreen forest" hex (which already exists), since all subarctic evergreen forests could be considered part of a taiga biome. However, if one wanted to distinguish between them, what about using a light grey (like tundra hexes) or light yellow (like grassland/steppe hex) background, keeping instead the traditional evergreen symbols? After all a taiga can be light or heavy as well.

Hello Zendrolion - yes I'm happy to amend the colour of the taiga hex symbol. I hadn't previously noticed the similarity you have pointed out! I would still like to use some sort of taiga hex symbol though, as in my maps, it identifies the pine forests that are likely to be stunted or have some other defect due to the extreme weather conditions. For example, In the real world, some taiga areas only have branches pointing in one direction due to the strong arctic winds which tend to blow in the same direction most of the time. I therefore like to highlight separately the forests which are likely to have these attributes / defects. Also, the taiga terrain in the extreme north tends to have the trees spread out more, so dense taiga would be very rare here - hence why I only tend to use one taiga symbol.

I envision this realm to be more like a loose and decentralized federation of clans than a proper kingdom.

No problem! I'll change the name to the 'confederacy of the northern gnomes,' or something similar.

Of course, even if there was already a more accessible Boldavia for that, complete with the nearby rival-lich in the person of Brannart McGregor...

How accessible it is will depend on where you are travelling from! How accessible is Glantri if you are running a campaign in the savage coast? It is true that there will be some similarities between what I have in mind and Boldavia, but all nations don't have to be completely unique.

The relevant point to me is to avoid making this realm (Sidsteland) the umpteenth M-Northman nation

Completely agree! I think the Quarik / beastman lineage is the way to go here.

very nice map...and I am a bit proud you used my norwold map in making it...

Hello Robin - thanks for the compliment. I'm please you have come by, as I would be interested in your views about what should be done with the Kingdom of the Dead, especially as I know you've done some work in this area in the past. Do you think we should make it smaller?

Anyway, thanks for the thoughts so far and keep them coming. It would appear that this area is very much still work in progress!

Yes the Living Alliance was created by me to shrink a bit the Kingdom of the Dead, imagining the latter power is not absolute in the territory. I imagined the Alliance as formed both by humanoids, humans and giants, all the people displaced by the Dead.
Probably I would also have the Othwa expand in the valley, and the Kingdom limited to the region of Nocturnus and Malathax in your map and to the east of it, and being relatively recent (i.e. maybe not present at all in 1000 AC)
I think the decision to have Urzud minor and maior originated from contradictions in the position of the city in canon sources. Galannor should have Urzud minor while the Othwa should conquer Urzud maior, but later point at Urzud minor too, threathening the Seven Duchies and Galannor (but they will also have the threat of the Kingdom of the Dead behind their backs). Havard imagined that Urzud minor and major where named Uthorrad in Blackmoor times, and had the same name as they were two successive military camps during the Beastmen crusades, which later grew into cities.
My idea on gnomes comes from the canon Empire of Dorfin and later James Mishler ideas for the vapourware product Hackwurld of Mystaros. Gnomes basically were the true masterminds behind the Lawful Alliance, the Yalu Empire and other occurrences in the history of Central Brun, mostly to contain Hule and other forces of Entropy and Chaos. Still probably loyalty to Law is not so important to them, but opportunistic, so it is also possible their game included sponsoring the Neutral Alliance too.

Sturm wrote:I think the decision to have Urzud minor and maior originated from contradictions in the position of the city in canon sources.

Uhmmm... I don't think that is the reason, since Urzud is only featured in GAZ10 and its site at the fork of the Borean River does not give birth to particular inconsistencies. The first map I know of which features a duplication of Urzud is Carillion's one, which I suppose (but the author will correct me if I'm wrong ) here is following Robin's and Sturm's map - where Urzud is featured north of the Adri Varma, while adding as well the canonic location of Urzud as shown in GAZ10 and indicated in LoZompatore's map. Thus it can be said that the duplication originates from the will of cartographers to preserve an "all-humanoid" Urzud (Maior) in correct canonic location and still include a "Galannor-conquered" Urzud (Minor) near Mishler's intended location.

The whole issue, IMO, could be handled using a different relative positioning of the various parts of Mishler's setting (Galannor, the seven duchies, and the five tribes), but that's something I'd only discuss only after Thorf's updated map of Brun is released; it is necessary, in fact, to know the precise location of the Cradle, how much room is left between it and northern Hule/Kavkaz, where the course of the Borean River is exactly going to pass (since this will affect the whole Kingdom of the Dead area), and how large is going to be the famous "Midland Forest". At the end we will probably still need two "Urzuds", but the second will at least be more conveniently placed.

Sturm wrote:Havard imagined that Urzud minor and major where named Uthorrad in Blackmoor times, and had the same name as they were two successive military camps during the Beastmen crusades, which later grew into cities.

Moreover, is really any need to call both humanoid strongholds "Urzud"? Mishler says in Galannor's description that Urzud (nowadays Galandar) is located "near the headwaters of the Borean River" (whose source appears to be a little north of the Black Mountains, according to HW map), but canon Urzud is not found there, so he's clearly in mistake. If we'll end up using a second Beastman fortress, I suppose devising a different name would be better, wouldn't it? Since Vaprak the Destroyer has a great part in the history of Galannor, maybe something like "Vaprakkak" or "Gar-Vaprak" or "Kala Vaprak".

"The prince should study historical accounts of the actions of great men, to see how they conducted themselves in war; he should study the
causes of their victories and defeats, so as to avoid the defeats and imitate the victories" N. Machiavelli, The Prince, XIV, 5

The first map of the serie should be mine, but it seems strange I decided arbitrarly the position of Galannor, I thought to have found it somewhere else but now I cannot recall where... or maybe I place it there because it fitted Mishler's description.

Anyway it is entirely possible that the "Urzud" conquered by Galannor was not Urzud at all, but a peripherical city of a short living humanoid kingdom which had the true Urzud as its capital. The mistake in naming could have been originated by the habit of naming the part as the whole, like historical Rome was both the city and the empire. The humans of Galannor may be convinced to have conquered the real Urzud or willing to maintain this story for propaganda purposes, even if it is not true.
Still it is possible that both locations were originally Blackmoor bases, as it makes sense from canon that Blackmoor had a strong presence in Brun. (I suppose this can work with both KW pole or not KW pole hypothesis).

Sturm wrote:The first map of the serie should be mine, but it seems strange I decided arbitrarly the position of Galannor, I thought to have found it somewhere else but now I cannot recall where... or maybe I place it there because it fitted Mishler's description.

I don't know, I guessed it was Robin's because her file on the Vaults brings an earlier date. Anyway I'm sure whoever decided to put Galannor on that map in that location made a reasonable choice from his/her point of view. What I'm at least willing to try to achieve is a location of Galannor which will allow us to preserve as much as possible of Mishler's writeup without changes. Keeping in mind that preserving everything from Mishler's Midlands will be ultimately impossible, since his material has to be made consistent with the one of Constantin.

Sturm wrote:Anyway it is entirely possible that the "Urzud" conquered by Galannor was not Urzud at all, but a peripherical city of a short living humanoid kingdom which had the true Urzud as its capital. The mistake in naming could have been originated by the habit of naming the part as the whole, like historical Rome was both the city and the empire. The humans of Galannor may be convinced to have conquered the real Urzud or willing to maintain this story for propaganda purposes, even if it is not true.

Yes, it's certainly possible; I still favor having two different names just to avoid confusion, since the duplication does not originate from canon nor from a full-fledged fan supplement.

Sturm wrote:Still it is possible that both locations were originally Blackmoor bases, as it makes sense from canon that Blackmoor had a strong presence in Brun. (I suppose this can work with both KW pole or not KW pole hypothesis).

This is likely, and is going to work in both versions of the precataclysmic map.

Regarding Galannor and Mishler’s Midlands, in anticipation of Thorf’s 72mph map of Brun, I’ve tried to label on a map various locations featured in Mishler’s articles. In order to avoid centering this thread on Galannor, I’ve posted the link in the correct (resurrected) thread regarding one of Carillion’s older maps.

Carillion wrote:yes I'm happy to amend the colour of the taiga hex symbol. I hadn't previously noticed the similarity you have pointed out! I would still like to use some sort of taiga hex symbol though, as in my maps, it identifies the pine forests that are likely to be stunted or have some other defect due to the extreme weather conditions. For example, In the real world, some taiga areas only have branches pointing in one direction due to the strong arctic winds which tend to blow in the same direction most of the time. I therefore like to highlight separately the forests which are likely to have these attributes / defects. Also, the taiga terrain in the extreme north tends to have the trees spread out more, so dense taiga would be very rare here - hence why I only tend to use one taiga symbol.

Ok, from what I understand then you are indicating with that type of hex only the northernmost fringe of the taiga/boreal forest biome; so it's perfectly reasonable to avoid having a "deep forest" equivalent for it.

"The prince should study historical accounts of the actions of great men, to see how they conducted themselves in war; he should study the
causes of their victories and defeats, so as to avoid the defeats and imitate the victories" N. Machiavelli, The Prince, XIV, 5